You can also use variables such as _PRIVILEGE and _DATE, although all I really want is the user and schema. Unfortunately, with the above technique, if you ever connect to a database using a full connection string (rather than a tnsnames.ora entry), this prompt will be a bit unwieldy. e.g.,

I love that I can connect without a tnsnames.ora entry, but I would like a simplistic prompt and I want it loaded every time I start sqlplus.

Fortunately, sqlplus will look in the current directory and in the $SQLPATH environment variable for a login.sql, and execute it automatically. For example, if you include the following in your login.sql